Evening watch 10-8-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
I met Joyce over at the Brighton site(BS) this evening for a falcon watch and boy did we have some action! We could see a falcon on the vent south(Back) side of BS from where we were running Joyces’ dogs. When we got over to the building there were 2 falcons. 1 adult on the vent and a juvie on a southwest corner. All was quiet between them for a while as Joyce and I had fits trying to ID them. The adult on the vent was too light to be Pigott but we couldn’t get the band legs or other clues to tell us it was Dot.Ca(DC). We thought it was a new bird at first but there was no problem deciding on the juvie. Such a little cutie!
DC 
J 
J
After an hour or so the peace and quiet ended abruptly when Pigott came streaking in to chase the juvie off the corner and DC joined right after her. They both were going after the juvie not really making contact but dive-bombing it to scare it outta there. DC left it to Pigott and retired to a southwest corner where he remained the rest of the night to watch the show along with Joyce and I. The juvie didn’t leave in fact she(pretty sure a female after seeing her fly with Pigott) flew over to the vent and landed. Pigott was beside herself with having this young sweet thing on her building with her mate! She made attempt after attempt to chase that little girl off that vent but the juvie held her ground and backed herself up to the building. All Pigott could do is fly in at the juvie ,land and squawk up a storm,rush the juvie and leave again. She did this many,many times without success. At one point she was bowing and echupping! Don’t really understand that behavior toward a juvie but hey we’re all learning as we go right!
Be sure to click pics for full version
There was whining coming from the juvie every time Pigott landed next to it on the vent. Miss P did lots of kakking,echupping and fanning her tail feathers and poofing herself up to look big and bad. Thankfully she didn’t hurt the juvie at any point as far as we could see. This all went on for 2 hours until it got too dark to see. DC left and when I departed Pigott and the juvie were still at it. Boy what a watch and what a big smile it put on this watchers face! 🙂
Click the links below for more pics and videos from the watch
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrKnA
http://youtu.be/D1_bjgfDgcM
http://youtu.be/eGfbjLtJJrU
http://youtu.be/X8p1nj58t0U
October 9th, 2012 at 12:06 AM
Wowsers…you and Joyce had quite the day! Very interesting falcon behavior.
October 9th, 2012 at 12:19 AM
You said it Barb-Wowsers! We’re learnin’ all the time!! 🙂
October 9th, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Beauty might have fed this poor baby-hope it will be OK. Thanks for the report and pics!
October 9th, 2012 at 9:11 AM
Omg! Girl fight! This must have been so interesting to watch.
October 9th, 2012 at 9:13 AM
Ps, great pictures!
October 9th, 2012 at 9:44 AM
The juvie probably was hungry. Pigott, not ever being a mom, might have perceived the juvie as a threat to her relationship with DC rather than a hungry juvie begging for food to survive. Other adults might have shared food with it.
October 9th, 2012 at 1:46 PM
I agree Kris I think it just wanted to eat and Pigott had no clue. The juvie looked healthy to me. It was pretty much ignoring DC and vice versa until Pigott showed up and then things got busy and noisey!
Lori it was very interesting to watch! Thanks guys-love the comments! 🙂
October 9th, 2012 at 2:43 PM
I have watched at our sites juveniles coming in at end of season, before migration and being tolerated, unless they got too cozy.
Last year we had MIss Edmonton , our male and an unknown juvenile on letters at Weber. It fed on some leftover food and Miss Edmonton only chased it off, when it got too close to male, so I figured it was a young male.
I have never seen an adult hurt a Jenilee, just chase them off.
this one looks from great from pictures,
October 9th, 2012 at 2:55 PM
I just went and looked at the videos and if P had wanted to hurt juvenile she could have. Looks like she just wanted her gone, and this juvenile has a lot of grit.
October 9th, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Thanks for your input Bev. Pigott definitely could have hurt the juvie if she had wanted to and she absolutely wanted her gone. 🙂
October 9th, 2012 at 4:16 PM
sorry about all my typos. Jenilee was supposed to be Juvenile and I goofed when I said young male, I meant female. will try and be more careful
October 9th, 2012 at 4:27 PM
No problem Bev I make my share of mistakes too! It’s all good!!! 🙂
October 9th, 2012 at 9:52 PM
Holy smoke ! Miss Piggy’s a tough little thing
October 9th, 2012 at 10:09 PM
Do you mean Pigott BH? I agree with the others that this young juvie probably wandered in looking for something to eat. It’s so tough for first year Peregrines. So many do not make it. Good luck young one! 🙂
October 9th, 2012 at 11:00 PM
Miss Pigott knows what she wants BH and last nite she wanted that juvie off her building. 🙂